Mr. Melta Man

     Hello everyone! Finished my Melta Gunner for my command squad. I liked the scarred head. Had to use it. I had to work on my stubble technique a little. One large change was a little bit of stippling of a slightly darker shade to create some slight variation across his head. Came out pretty good.

     With this guy done, I have only one more model to complete my command squad. Mr. Vox caster will be next. I've got a good lead on an airbrush compressor and that will be critical to some ideas I have for my vehicles and some various other projects.

Local GW store closing...


     So I had mentioned some issues that I had with my local GW. Imagine my surprise when stopping by and discovering via a little flyer on their counter that they are closing up. I seems that the mall is jacking up their rent, so they really had no choice. I heard that the battle bunker that was closed a few months back is being reopened within the next year. Of course that has been and on-again-off-again rumor and a now don't know what to believe.

     The MOST interesting result of the announced closing of this store has been my interaction with the employees that ARE NOT being relocated. They are now awesome. They don't ask the silly canned questions and feigned interest held only long enough to make a product recommendation. I stopped by the store today and it was a great experience. More like hanging out, than trying to avoid the silly sales pitches. Turns out, when you turn the GW-ness down just a bit, the atmosphere of the store changes for the better.

Forge World stuffs...


     I've decided that I'm going to start a Red Scorpion army. I got some of my first bits from Forge World. They made a small mistake and sent only one upgrade kit when I had ordered two. Thankfully, the stellar customer support has sent out the rest of the order via express delivery. On a slightly related note, a friend of mine received his copies of the Badab War books, and they seem incredible. I haven't seen them, but he has read through some of the awesome rules and scenarios in those monsters. I'm a little sad that many 40K fans might never enjoy these. I'll endeavor to bring some of these to a table soon.

New Camera...

     My wife purchased a new point-and-shoot camera. A Canon Powershot, to be precise. I tried it out on the photos you see here. Interestingly enough, I think I'll stick with my old Kodak. The color balance is a little weird. I'm sure that I could have negated that with some trixy editing, but as my computer is still broken, I don't have the needed tools to do so. The other interesting problem  with using this camera is the face detection. It detects the "face" on my model and forces the camera from macro mode to portrait mode. This bit of software is annoying as the focal logic is very different in these two modes. So there IS such a thing as a camera that is TOO smart. I did take a funny pic with the camera, and with that I'll leave you to my most recent shots of my Melta Gunner:

 "Bring It Down" - This order allows all weapons in the unit to be fired as if twin linked against the a target vehicle or monstrous creature.

 

     That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed, and as always feel free to leave question, and comments.

Orders sir?

     So I lied, just a little. I decided to throw another update up before my computer was fixed. The reason for this? I've completed my commander! I really... REALLY like the way he turned out. I was a little hesitant as it's another HQ model. You always want to put your best foot forward when it comes to HQ models. This one, even though he's just a plastic model out of a command squad box, was no exception. I spent a lot of time on a few areas, and I think they paid off. These areas were the face, the blending on the armor, and the free hand on the right shoulder.

     The freehand was really simple, but it turned out exactly how I pictured it in my mind prior to putting the brush to the model. That gives me a pretty good feeling. Up until now, my freehand has been limited, to say the least. I've been inspired to try it a bit more, as I have a few ideas for some fun stuff I'd like to throw on some vehicles. I needed something on this model to show his rank. I've placed skulls on my two veteran sergeants, so his shoulder had to be a bit fancier. Fun stuff!

     Of course, given this long void of blog posts, I had mentioned that I wasn't idle on the painting table. As requested, here are some pics of my second Veterans squad that I completed  a while back. Enjoy:

 Yes, that's a Space Marine scout head... Big whoop, wanna fight about it?

Some bones from a Vampire Counts skeleton box given to me by a friend. 

 Some scratches and nicks on the armor that I dig. I'm starting to dig the weathered look

Wounds for my meltas? Look! I green-stuffed some bricks, the red ones. Sculpting skillz.

     That's it for now. The army is really looking good as it builds up on my table. I've got the rest of the command squad to paint, then I'm in vehicle territory. For those, I'll need to go buy a compressor for my airbrush.

     Been putting a lot of thought as to what Space Marine army I'm going to do as my next army (much further down the line) and I'm pretty set on Red Scorpions. Should be fun. I wish those damn Imperial Armour books for the Badab war were not so freaking expensive.

     Thoughts and comments are always appreciated! I'm still contemplating the name for my Guard army. The best I've come up with so far is the Hive Rats. Since they are an urban, more elite force style army, I thought that might work. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I couldn't find an established Guard regiment that had a similar color scheme, so if you know of one, do tell. Thanks for tuning in.